Observer Comment: Give local people a voice on future of West Hill Cafe

It’s all happening here in Hastings with the floodgates opening for funding and everything a buzz with plans for the future regeneration of the town.

But one thing I am less than enthusiastic about is Hastings Borough Council’s plans for the much loved West Hill Cafe.

The Council has announced it is seeking proposals for people to take over the cafe - but here is the problem. They want the future tenants to become involved in using the cafe as a visitor centre to promote the nearby castle and Ladies Parlour, which will include ‘access improvements to Ladies Parlour, with improved setting and landscaping of the surrounding castle grounds’.

This instantly rules out all those with experience of running a good cafe or catering business or any young entrepreneurs with ideas for running a successful cafe but with no experience or resources to take on a major landscaping and tourism industry initiative.

The inevitable result - a big corporate organisation takes over the running of the cafe and residents have no say in how it is run.

Once again the Council is badly out of step with the views of local residents. If they kept up with social media and followed local resident’s groups they would know that the vast majority of views being expressed lean toward the cafe re-opening as just that - a cafe where people can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and good value food while admiring the superb views of the Old Town, harbour and East Hill. They don’t want some marketing experience.

Where was the local public consultation over these plans to turn a much loved local amenity into ‘The Hastings Castle Experience’? My feeling is people are less than excited about the Council’s ‘exciting vision’. Yesterday alone I had five local business people contact me to say how disappointed they were with these proposals, all criticising the council for its lack of public consultation.

Let’s not forget this Council owned property, in a prominent location, that they have such great visions for, was allowed to become an unsightly wreck overgrown with weeds under their watch.

Yes they were in dispute with the former tenant but surely they could have maintained their property, or at least cleared the weeds growing around it.

It’s ironic that the Council leader is quoted as saying it will aim “to ensure that our town once again becomes a 'must visit' destination.”

If her council were so committed to tourism and making Hastings a visitor destination, why then did they close the town’s visitor centre and sever all links with 1066 Country - the successful and long established joint project that was set up to promote the area?